The Nomadic Nenets dwelling “Mya”: the symbolism of a woman’s role and space in a changing tundra

Abstract

The official policy of the Soviet state toward nomadic populations was to change their way of life by implementation of enforced collective property (on reindeer), boarding school education, and the displacement of nomadic women to settlements. This policy, however, never totally succeeded in all the Nenets areas and among all groups; many Nenets people remain living in a nomadic community. Today, globalization in the form of modern technologies, industrial development, exploration of underground resources and climate changes are affecting the lives of the Nenets. This article draws from several ethnographic fieldwork surveys of nomadic Nenets families conducted between 2015-2017, within the area of the arctic tundra and among the Forest Nenets of Northern Russia. The author’s aim is to address one aspect of Nenets’s life impacted by modern globalization: their dwelling space. Their traditional dwelling, the “Mya” has been only marginally changed and is still in use in almost all the areas in which Nenets families and communities can be found. Can it be that the displacement of women, originally caused by official Soviet state policy, has also affected the sacred symbolism of the traditional Mya?